Scarves and Tissues

Cold season has kicked off at our house with R succumbing first and then sharing with me.  While feeling less than energetic and miserable is not fun, slowing down your pace can be quite lovely.

A few days ago, a package arrived in the mail from Kristina.  Cheerful birthday wishes and this too-adorable-for-words booklet were inside.  Starting off...

'When the Duchess invites you for a fortnight in August...and you realise, at one and the same time, that HE will be there and you can't afford any new clothes...'

I wrote to Kristina that it reads like a bedtime story for women!  The illustrations were familiar and on closer inspection I see this is the work of none other than Joyce Dennys.  Off I went in search of my copy of Henrietta's War to admire once again.  While the tissues pile up around my pillows and blankets these little gems have been a bright spot.

A side note...At 3:20 am that annoying tickle began as my cold pill wore off so I got up to make a cup of tea.  In a semi-dark kitchen I plugged in the kettle and heard a buzzing sound.  Then horror of horrors saw orange glowing behind the switch plate!  Yanking out the plug I could see a blackened area around the switch so I resorted to boiling water on the stove for my tea.  Needless to say, getting back to sleep wasn't easy and first thing this morning I put in a work order with R for a repair. 

Happy Birthday, Deacon!

This was our first glimpse of 'Eddie', that was his litter name.  He was eight weeks old and living on the farm where he was born.  Don't ask me how or why but nobody had shown an interest in taking him home.  I can only imagine he was waiting for us. 

He's three years old today and despite driving us crazy with acts of random silliness and boisterous behaviour, we love him to bits.

A la Country Living, Readers' Pets, here is a little expose.

Loves - Balls, any kind but if they squeak all the better.

Hates - The vet's office, having a bath and being brushed.

Naughtiest Habits - Being rude to small dogs, stealing teatowels and flatulent in the company of others.

Favourite Food - Cheese!

Dreams of - Drives in the car to Lowville Park for a swim and seeing Shannon, his Labrador lady friend. 

This is one boy who won't be sleeping in on his special day!

Long Weekend Wrap Up

The past four days have gone by all too fast. I had a birthday, ate with chopsticks...well mostly, enjoyed a Fall Fair, had friends over for dinner and drove through some really gorgeous vistas in full fall colour to visit The Heiress at school. I've barely had time to pour over some recent acquisitions! Finally, They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple has been reprinted and one can never have too much Whipple. In my quest to read more Elizabeth Taylor I pre-ordered A Game of Hide and Seek almost two months ago and look forward to comparing this one with, In a Summer Season. The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith is a book that I read about on Simon's blog awhile ago and has 'stuck' with me ever since. I was walking around Indigo in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, looked up and there it was in all it's witty English, historical social culture glory. I'm not shy about admitting that I smile and scrunch my shoulders in glee when browsing through its pages.

Most of Kitchener was shut yesterday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. But after a lovely visit with The Heiress, R spied a bookshop that was open - hooray! The Barbara Pym is one that we don't have at the library so I couldn't say no. Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart was in pretty good shape and rather inexpensive, again, I couldn't resist. Short stories are something I've come to appreciate more and more lately and short stories by Muriel Spark should definitely grace my shelves. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume 2 was in...well, not very good shape. The pages are yellow, they even smell a bit stale but I couldn't leave it behind. R may have wished that I had as I was glued to it for the hour's drive back home!

And this is an absolutely gratuitous photo of the beautiful flowers that my lovely husband gave me on Friday. All together now....'Awwww'.